The Italian Job Part 1 Montichiari Or BUST!
Intrepid bass addict Matt ‘thejoose’ Sprigg and his wife, Lou, took a massive road trip to defend UK bass glory in the World Finals of the Bassrace contest formathere’s his video-diarised account, reported in exclusive detail on Talk Audio magazine and filmed by Lou :
It was a relatively innocent conversation between Adam ‘bassbenz’ Cope, Alex ‘loudvanman’ Mitchell and myself late one October night somewhere in the middle of the English Channel on the Calais to Dover ferry as we headed back from the 2009 dB Drag World Finals. I told them how much I wanted the 149.9dB Bassrace World title.
I had been without the Kia since the beginning of 2009 and had travelled to Hamburg without a car to support Adam and Alex (as well as to drink more than Team UK’s fair share of Jupiler!) as they had qualified for the Bassrace finals. I heard a few cars and the bug hit me again – I needed bass back in my life!
Fast forward eighteen months and following Big Black’s amazing year Lou (my wife) and I had qualified for the Bassrace world finals and were leaving for a Pan-European road trip to Montichiari in Northern Italy to claim that World Title.
The plan was to take the ferry from Dover to Dunkirk on Wednesday morning, drive through France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, then back into France, take an overnight stop in Mulhouse, then on Thursday, drive through the Swiss Alps into Italy. Four days at the show, Thursday to Sunday, then on Monday take a day’s rest in Lake Garda and then the same route home Tuesday morning -This little story will guide you through that trip, with my words and a few video diary moments as well – seven days, 2,100 miles and one MASSIVE fuel bill!
Enjoy!
We were booked on the 4am Dunkirk ferry out of Dover on Wednesday morning, so we decided to get a hotel in Dover on Tuesday night. So after leaving work early, we got on the road. And I should probably explain the hair. I shaved my head for the finals back in 2009 so figured I would do it again this year. Get a bit of a tradition going. Anyway, here is the first of the video diaries:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCT8HsR7FP4
Kenwood UK very kindly lent me a KNA-G620T SatNav module to add onto their KDC-DDX5026 Double DIN Headunit they gave me to run in Project Big Black. It added full Garmin SatNav functionality to the Headunit and ensured our mammoth trek was in the right direction! Thanks again Kenwood!
We holed up at the Ramada Inn, Dover for Tuesday night. Our ferry was at four a.m. so we ate and got to bed around 8pm. At two a.m. the alarm went off. Here you can see us outside the hotel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yunnqHwQ1C4
We got to the ferry no problems and after two hours’ sailing we landed at Dunkirk at 7am. As is tradition (some would say law) on any trip involving a ferry and loud cars, disembarkation must take place under heavy bass attack. I will never forget my first world finals trip when Geoff ‘Firestarter’ Kerss dropped a bass sweep from 80 to 20Hz in his bright orange Ford Connect (4x RE MX18s and 12kW rms) as we were getting off the ferry at Calais. Different parts of the ferry vibrating as the frequencies plummeted and this trip was no different! If you listen closely you can hear the body of the ferry resonating after each bass note!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFtlipnjSPQ
After passing through customs we headed straight for the local supermarket to fill up on fuel (Petrol is expensive on the main roads in Europe, supermarket fuel is about the same price as back home) ‚¬150 and a full tank later, we were on our way.
Our overnight stop was in Mulhouse – around four hundred and fifty miles away – SatNav took us through Belgium, Luxembourg (Petrol at ‚¬1.11 a litre – we filled up there!) and back into France. As we arrived in Mulhouse (the location of the Peugeot/Citroen factory), the SatNav decided to route us right through the factory car park as a short cut, which was strange.
We arrived at the F1 Hotel in Mulhouse around 8pm and after a fantastic burger from the restaurant across the road we headed to bed – Check out the amazing facilities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNfELpxk0Ys
Thursday morning saw us leave Mulhouse early and head into Switzerland. We passed border control without a problem and headed up into the Alps. The weather was pretty crappy so not much to see on the way through until we hit the Gotthard Tunnel (you can see me having trouble saying the name in this next video) – the third longest road tunnel in the world at about sixteen kilometres. I have already boomed the Dartford Tunnel so thought it only fair that I play some Dubalicious through this one too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pvAGXhDono
After coming out the other side we headed into Italy and got to our hotel on Thursday night without any hassle.
Friday was the first day of the finals, so we arrived nice and early at the venue to find our pitch – which just happened to be as far away from everyone else as possible!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4eIL_MX1JE
Day One was just spent relaxing at the venue and playing some tunes. We didn’t get to make any competitive noise until day two but I did get a yellow card late on Friday for making too much noise. We managed some testing first thing on Saturday morning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b5YpEQhqPY
Later in the day, as I was booming away to a few people I noticed someone familiar walking up to the car. Turns out that my Dad had made the trip over for the weekend for added support which was a nice surprise.
Later in the day we managed to get our qualifying round done – 149.8dB. Not perfect but good enough for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xql2I_Tx6vM
Day Three started with us waiting for the brackets to be drawn up for the European Semi Finals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWOacjivJz4
Shortly after this video, the brackets went up. I was drawn against the little blue Tigra which was running RE Audio SX subs.
I managed to win with 149.8dB again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JqspJgsJHs
At this point, we have to split the narrative, as there are so very many media files embedded in the tale, being a video diary. I gather the limit, for both CMS (the mag) and Boards (the forums) alike, is ten. So for the conclusion of our Stirring Tale Of Derring Do With Johnny Foreigner, see “The Italian Job Part 2 – Blighty Bound!
Words: Matt ‘thejoose’ Sprigg
Videography: Lou Sprigg
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